head coach: Kevin Constantine

roster: C - Ron Francis, Martin Straka, Stu Barnes, C. Ferraro, Tyler Wright. LW - Andreas Johansson, P. Ferraro, Alex Hicks, Garry Valk. RW - Jaromir Jagr, Alexei Morozov, Ed Olczyk, Robby Brown. D - Darius Kasparaitis, Kevin Hatcher, Chris Tamer, Fredrik Olausson, Neil Wilkinson, Ian Moran, Brad Werenka, Jiri Slegr, Sven Butenschon. G - Tom Barrasso, Ken Wregget.

injuries: Ian Moran, d (knee surgury, 1-2 weeks); Brad Werenka, d (sprained ankle, day-to-day); Garry Valk, lw (groin, day-to-day).

transactions: Aquired Robert Lang, c, off waivers from Boston on October 25th. and assigned him to Houston of the IHL. Traded Greg Johnson, c, to Chicago for Tuomas Gronman, d, on October 22nd. Gronman was assigned to Syracuse of the AHL. Assigned Alek Stojanov to Syracuse of the AHL.

standings:

Eastern Conference - Northeast Division
Team         GP   W   L   T   PTS   GF   GA
Boston       15   9   5   1    19   41   35
Ottawa       15   8   4   3    19   47   36
Montreal     14   8   4   2    18   44   30
Pittsburgh   16   8   6   2    18   47   44
Buffalo      14   5   7   2    12   35   45
Carolina     15   4   8   3    11   38   47

game results:

10/22 at San Jose    W 5-2
10/24 at Edmonton    L 4-3
10/25 at Vancouver   W 3-2 OT
10/28 at Calgary     L 6-3
11/01 Vancouver      W 7-6 OT
11/02 at Chicago     L 3-1

team news:

by Brett Taylor, Pittsburgh Correspondent

The Pens started out the longest road trip in franchise history on fire but have cooled off a little since the end of the eight-game trek.

They began the trip going 4-0-1 before losing two of their last three, blowing leads of 2-0 and 3-0 to Edmonton and Calgary, respectively. The Pens were not the only team to blow a lead against the Flames in Calgary. A few weeks ago even the mighty Colorado Avalanche blew a 4-0 lead to the scrappy Flames, who eventually won 6-5 in overtime.

The Pens were playing surprisingly strong defensive hockey throughout the first five games of the road trip. They played a patient style, taking the offensive chances as they came and not forcing too much. They often found themselves down by a goal early, but tended to not allow many goals after the first one. An example of this was on Oct. 22nd. in San Jose, where Jeff Freisen scored at the 1:41 mark of the first period. The two teams exchanged goals in the second period before the hottest Penguin, good ol' Eddie Olczyk, put the Pens up for good in the third period.

Olczyk was a staple in the Pens' meager offensive diet throughout the road trip and in the subsequent games, scoring a goal in six straight contests. Eddie O' had his steak snapped in Chicago on Nov. 2nd. He is now tied with Ron Francis for the team lead with seven goals. Philadelphia's John LeClair leads the NHL with 12 goals. Francis and Jaromir Jagr are tied for the team lead with 19 points, that is good enough for third in the league, tying them with Colorado's Peter Forsberg.

The Pens got into an old school shootout with Vancouver at the Civic Arena on Nov. 1st. The game was reminiscent of the Pens of old... high scoring, defensively sloppy, one that players love but goaltenders hate. The Pens jumped out to a 2-0 lead but then allowed Vancouver to rattle off five goals in a five-minute span of the first period. Vancouver stretched its lead to 6-3 early in the second on a goal by Mark Messier, but Francis and Martin Straka scored later in the period to cut the lead to 6-5. The third period saw rookie Alexei Morozov tie the score at 6-6 with a power-play goal at 13:06. Then at 3:52 of overtime, Rob Brown fired a slap shot over goaltender Kirk McLean's left shoulder to win the rollercoaster of a game for the Pens.

For Brown, the overtime winner was his second of the game and third since returning to the Pens this year. Robbie is playing well. He's third on the team with 11 points and has an even plus-minus. He is a player who has always been criticized for his skating ability and speed. His skating is what has kept him from the NHL for the past few seasons. But, this year Robbie is making up for his lack of speed with a healthy dose of work ethic.

Another player who has played strong in the past two weeks is Jiri Slegr. Slegr has been the strongest two-way defenseman the Pens have had in a long time. He has had a few times when he seemed possessed recently, his play has exemplified the Pens' play over the course of the long road trip. Slegr is third in the NHL in plus/minus with a +9 and has one goal and two assists this season.

Who says that defensive hockey stunts offensive output. The Pens under head coach Kevin Constantine's defense-first system are showing that just the opposite is true. About this time last year the Pens were enjoying a long winning streak as rookie goaltender Patrick Lalime was in the process of tying the record for the most games played from the NHL debut without suffering a loss. But, they still were not playing as good as they are this year, even though they had Mario Lemieux.

Through the first 15 games this season the Pens have scored 46 goals, averaging 3.07 goals a game. Last seacon, through the first 15 games, they scored 44 goals, averaging 2.93 per game.

The proof in the pudding, as they say, in the defensive numbers. This season the Pens have given up 41 goals for a 2.73 goals-against average. Last season they had given up 61 goals for a goals-against average of 4.07, through 15 games.

What do all these numbers mean? Well, they show that the Kevin Constantine system is working. Last year, the Pens had the biggest team in the league, yes, even bigger than Philadelphia. They were high priced and high powered, and consequently the lose a lot of games because they were one of the worst defensive teams in the NHL. This season the Pens are quite a bit smaller and younger. They have a new attitude and a new system. Constantine has the boys playing hard for 60 minutes and playing defense-first hockey. They also hit a lot more than they did before. The poke-check tactic that works in junior hockey is no longer a practice of the Pens. Now every game, somebody on the Pens lays a memorable hit on the opposition.

The Pens still have some wrinkles to iron out. One is consistency. They have to play the strong defense every game, not more of that reverting back to last year's game play like they did against Vancouver. Two, special teams. The Pens have to get the 19th ranked penalty kill up to around fifth or sixth. The 8th ranked power play is coming along but is still weak on the road.

The Pens now know that they can play this defensive system and have won with it already. For a period of time while on the long road trip they were even atop the Eastern Conference standings. The next thing they need to do is to make the defense-first system theirs and play it evey game. If they can be feared for the trapping defense and strong play in the late '90s the same way they were feared for dazzling offense in the early '90s, they can once again rise to the top of the Eastern Conference.

[ issues | web extra | stats | nhl archive | home | chat | mailing list | about us | search | comments ]

1997 © Copyright LCS Hockey All Rights Reserved